A series of burglaries puzzles the police. Apart from stealing the silverware of the houses he breaks into the thief also tidies up the place. Furthermore PC Rowan suspects that the local saint miss Stirling is up to something. His suspicion seems to be confirmed when an incomplete set of figures she bought at an auction turns up complete at Ashfordly Hall. Kate Rowan has been filling in for Dr. Ferrenby while he has been injured, and now he offers her a job at his practice. But she has doubts although she has wanted that position since they arrived. Alan Maskell, a young man Rowans has helped setting up a motorcycle repair shop, is getting married to his fiancée Sandra and his father asks Greengrass to be in charge of transportation. But his lorry is not quite suitable so he "borrows" another one.

Jackie gets a visit from her old friend Caroline. She is surprised to learn that Caroline has a baby. Caroline needs a day off from motherhood and leaves the baby with Jackie and Mike while she goes to York to see some friends. Mike leaves the baby in a pram outside the police house, but when Jackie comes home from an errand the baby is gone. Jackie is not the only one who has a visitor. Lady Patricia visits her brother at Ashfordly Hall together with an old family friend Lord Hal Tadcaster. Well "together" may not be the proper word, because she would rather see him leave than stay. And with good reason since the CID suspects Tadcaster of being a drug dealer and asks the police in Ashfordly to keep an eye on him. The post office in Whitby goes on strike. Vernon Scripps gets the idea to start a courier service. And for once he does the dirty work himself.

Liz Merrick's former lover James Robson comes to Aidensfield to get her back. Before it comes to that he is killed by a single shot from a high powered rifle outside the Aidensfield Arms. But both DC Bradley and PC Bellamy were only yards away from him at the time, and one of them may have been the intended target. As if to prove the latter Bellamy is shot and wounded in the arm at the same spot the next evening. A likely suspect is Frank Clegghorn. He is a master marksman, has recently been dishonourably discharged from the army and dislikes the police just as much as his father Nathaniel does. Tim Barnet has had a break down with his classic Bentley limousine and checks in at the Aidensfield Arms while Bernie Scripps gets it repaired. He makes quite an impression on Gina and he finds her very attractive also.

Joyce Carswell does not get along very well with her mother-in-law. The old lady dies under mysterious circumstances and it seems that Joyce has killed her. But her husband makes it look like the old woman's death was caused by a man, who has robbed several old people in Aidensfield by posing to be from the water board. Oscar Blaketon is making inquiries in a very serious matter. The Aidensfield Darts Trophy resides in the White Lion pub, but it rightfully belongs to the Aidensfield Arms. To settle the matter he and Angus Fergussson, the owner of the White Lion, agree on a final winner-takes-it-all match. David wants to play for the Arms, but when Blaketon will not let him try out for the team he joins the White Lion team instead.

Barbara Simner suspects that her husband Ken is trying to kill her because of several so-called mishaps. She refuses to call the police, but they get involved when she is run down by a runaway tractor. Oscar Blaketon wants the "Best Kept Village" award to go to Aidensfield. A hindrance to this goal is a number of molehills, but Vernon Scripps has an all-purpose pesticide powder which should do the trick. And a potent stuff it is. David passes out while using it and Dr. Merrick suspects it to be very poisonous. The smell of it is surely strong enough to scare everybody away. Even the moles. Gina's friend Diane moves into the Aidensfield Arms to help her during the final stages of her pregnancy. Diane quickly sets her sights on PC Crane. Meanwhile Phil Bellamy is more preoccupied with finding a best man for his wedding to Gina than his police work.

Former formula 1 driver Jack Maclean returns from a drive and collapses in his own hallway. He is diabetic and has gone into a coma, but Dr. Merrick soon get him back on his feet again. A car like Maclean's very distinctive Aston Martin was involved in an accident, but Maclean does not remember anything about any accident. Or so he claims. The next day PC Crane finds him dead of a massive overdose of insulin. Vernon Scripps is approached by a businessman and entrepreneur like himself, Leonard Parks. Parks has a proposition for him that will earn him a lot of money with a minimum of effort. He just has to recruit people for his organization to sell Parks' ShineFresh cleaning products. These recruits pay him a stake in return and may recruit more people who pays them a stake and so on. Just like a pyramid!

The future has arrived at the Ashfordly police station in the form of the new sergeant George Miller and a state-of-the-art Ford Zephyr police car. He also has plans to close down the police house in Aidensfield and move PC Walker to Ashfordly permanently. Apart from that Sergeant Miller is very old-fashioned and extremely narrow-minded. His first case in charge of the Ashfordly police is a series of wage snatches. After yet another snatch PC Bellamy and the Zephyr's regular driver PC Yates give chase to two suspects in a Mini Cooper, but they are shaken off when the robbers go where the big police car cannot follow them, and only PC Walker on his motorcycle is able to keep up the pursuit, but crashes when the robbers block the road. The villagers of Aidensfield are not taking the possible loss of their police house lightly of course and organize a protest.

Someone sets fire to Bill Galloway's barn and he suspects Barry Dyson as a revenge for being sacked. Dyson even has a previous conviction for arson. But Dyson has an alibi. Dyson also says that he was sacked because he is seeing Galloway's daughter Sylvia. Then there is a fire at Jim Hobson's farm only hours after Dyson had been refused a job there. And this time Dyson has no alibi. Aunt Peggy is visited by an old friend, Denzil Witty. He has a plan on how to put advertising posters up wherever you want without permission from the council. But not everybody is keen on his idea and they take matters in their own hands.

Miller's ex army pal arrives. Peggy takes Phil's daughters poaching.

Rosie is walking her aunts dog Snowy when Simon Langley-Smythe shoots the dog claiming it was disturbing his pheasants. The police cannot do anything because she was on private property. But PC Walker is not quite convinced this was the only reason and questions him closely. And he may be on to something. His wife Julie has just given birth to their first child and he is down on her because the baby cries all the time and evens beats her up. Bill Galloway has trouble with some children who have some fun letting out his sheep. PC Younger is assigned to the case, but they get away from him every time. Gina and Phil announce that they are engaged to get married.

Jim Brady has returned from Africa to become the new estate manager at Ashfordly Hall, and he gets tough with his lordships tenants. It seems he wants to get rid of all of them. They will not put up with that and decides to teach him a lesson. But will they go as far as to shoot at him? David has started to collect trading stamps in order to redeem them for something nice. So much in fact that he has become quite addicted to it.

The young mother Julie is neglecting her two daughters after she met her new boyfriend Brian, who is a real troublemaker, and PC Mason and Nurse Cassidy are concerned for the well-being of the children. Mason especially has it in for the children's officer Clive Eames, whom he thinks does too little to protect them. Somebody is stealing lead from the churches in the area. They even manage to get away before the "watchful" eyes of PC Younger - twice - and Sergeant Miller is far from pleased. Gina is still afraid that something will go wrong with her baby like it did with Daniel, her and Phil's first-born child. To top it all Phil's 18-year-old niece Dawn has got in with the rough crowd and her father asks Gina to take care of the girl for a while.